John McCain said Monday that a new message from al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in which he scolds his followers in Iraq proves that U.S. efforts there are succeeding.
“Basically he encouraged the extreme elements—al-Qaida in Iraq particularly in the Sunni areas—to join together and be more effective in bringing terrorism and murder and suicide bombings to Iraq and to Anbar province,” McCain said. “It’s a clear sign that we are succeeding in Iraq because people got very tired of al-Qaida taking their young women, killing their young women, killing their people, and acting in the most brutal fashion that they are.”
In the audiotape played Monday on Al-Jazeera television, bin Laden chastises some of his followers for lagging behind and making mistakes in Iraq, and for putting their personal allegiances ahead of their opposition to American forces.
